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The upper part of the painting was cut, it is signed at the bottom as 'IOANNESS BELLINVS'.
The new relationship of form and colour sealed by the quality of light leads to results of ineffable human participation in this painting which originally hung in the offices of the Magistrato della Milizia del Mare in the Palace of the Doges. The Virgin is seated with charming naturalness on the marble throne which is reminiscent of Donatello, and joins her sensitive hands in a gesture of mute adoration of her Son who lies fully relaxed in sleep across her knees. The chromatic values of the painting are reminiscent of the way Piero della Francesca used colour in the mid-fifteenth century to unfold the perspective of his images.
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